Insulators help separate active chromatin domains from silenced ones. In yeast, gene promoters act as insulators to block the spread of Sir and HP1 mediated silencing while in metazoans most insulators are multipartite autonomous entities. tDNAs are repetitive sequences dispersed throughout the human genome and we now show that some of these tDNAs can function as insulators in human cells. Usin...

Chromatin insulators are regulatory elements involved in the modulation of enhancer-promoter communication. The 1A2 and Wari insulators are located immediately downstream of the Drosophila yellow and white genes, respectively. Using an assay based on the yeast GAL4 activator, we have found that both insulators are able to interact with their target promoters in transgenic lines, forming gene lo...

Uncovering the nature of communication between enhancers, promoters and insulators is important for understanding the fundamental mechanisms that ensure appropriate gene expression levels. Here we describe an approach employing transient expression of genetic luciferase reporter gene constructs with quantitative RT-PCR analysis of transcription between an enhancer and Hsp70 promoter. We tested ...

We prove that there exists a class of crystalline insulators, which we call "fragile Mott insulators," which are not adiabatically connected to any sort of band insulator provided time-reversal and certain point-group symmetries are respected, but which are otherwise unspectacular in that they exhibit no topological order nor any form of fractionalized quasiparticles. Different fragile Mott ins...

Chromatin boundaries or insulators modulate enhancer-promoter interactions in complex genetic loci. However, the mechanism underlying insulator activity is not known. Previous studies showed that the activity of the Drosophila suHw insulator is abolished by the tandem arrangement (pairing) of the insulator elements, suggesting that interactions between insulators or like elements may be involve...

Received Jul 10, 2017 Revised Oct 14, 2017 Accepted Oct 26, 2017 Overhead line insulators can be damaged for various reasons during their service life. Porcelain or glass insulators once damaged can affect the reliability of power system networks. This paper presents the study of voltage and electric characteristics along the surface of a broken porcelain insulator located in a string of 10 uni...

A Damascelli ndrea University of British Columbia Entangled spin-orbital texture in topological insulators With their spin-helical metallic surface state, topological insulators define a new state of matter with strong application potential in spintronics. In this talk, I will illustrate how modern spin and electron spectroscopy techniques can be used to reveal the entangled spin-orbital textur...

Ceramic insulators are widely used in transmission as well as in distribution lines. As outdoor insulators, the ceramic insulators are subjected to environmental stresses. In particular case, the insulators may severe high pollution exposure. Under the polluted condition, high leakage current will flow on the insulator surface and dry band arching may take place. The phenomena may initiate the ...

The surface of insulators accumulates charge during subject to high voltage stresses electrically.The surface charging causes deteriorations of electrical performance and durability of high voltage insulators in gas. In this paper, we describe a result of visual analysis of electric fields with accumulation charge on complex insulator surface to clear the effect of surface charging on the diele...

Thermoelectric effects in Kondo insulators are attracting interests because of the emerging possibility of developping better thermoelectric materials for a portable refrigerator without liquid coolant. In this article, the theory of thermoelectric effects are reinvestigated for insulators or semiconductors at low temperatures. It is found that the famous relations established by Lord Kelvin fo...